About two villages in war-torn Marawi City have remained unclear of the Islamic State-inspired Maute Terror Group, a military spokesman said on Friday.

"The area of operation is confined to about two barangays, or to be exact, about two and a half barangays and confined to about less than one square kilometer of the most problematic areas," said Armed Forces of the Philippines spokesman Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla Jr.

Marawi has over 90 villages.

Padilla said the government troops "are in a very high state of morale, all leaning forward to finish this operation at the soonest time possible even as the number of soldiers killed in combat are high.

"Despite the number of casualties and wounded that we have had in the past few weeks, this does not deter the troops and our ground commanders from pursuing the mission and accomplishing the much-needed liberation of Marawi," he said.

As of July 27, 114 government troops have been killed since May 23 when the Maute terrorists attacked and occupied Marawi. The number of slain terrorists reached 471 and civilians, 45.

Padilla expressed belief that the Maute leaders were still in Marawi. Celerina Monte/DMS